BIT320 Assignments

September 20, 2005

Project 1 — Requirements

A description of the problem at hand and requirements for Project 1.

Topics:

Overview

This year in BIT320, we will work on a database for Denali Flavors, located in Grand Rapids, MI. John Nardini, Senior VP of Marketing has been kind enough to consent to visit our class and provide us with a course project.

Dead-lines
  1. September 29: Presentation by John Nardini. You should be prepared with questions based on this document.
  2. September 30: The names of your group members.
  3. October 26, 5 PM: The deliverables listed in the next section.

Requirements at Denali Flavors

Here is how John Nardini describes the requirements at Denali Flavors:

Since Moose Tracks comes in a wide variety of brands (Dean's Moose Tracks, Stroh's Moose Tracks, Kroger Moose Tracks, etc.) and our distribution varies from one SKU to six in any given market, it's often hard for consumers to locate our product. Therefore, we get a lot of requests for "where can I find Moose Tracks in my area".

At the current time, the response to this is a manual process. They email me, I find the answer and email them back. Instead, we'd like to automate the process.

I'd like a database where a consumer could go to a web page and type in his zip code. Potentially, they could even select which Denali brand they wanted to find (or we could limit this to just Moose Track for simplicity). Then the database would return with 1) a listing of the local retailers where the product can be found (Meijer, etc.), 2) the brand name(s) the product is under (Dean's Country Charm, etc.), and 3) a picture of what the package looks like. (We can edit out part 3 of this if we need to -- it may get too complicated with it in).

If we get this output, the consumer should be able to find the product on his own.

One complication: the US has a ga-zillion markets. We were thinking of limiting the market list to the 52 major markets tracked by AC Nielsen, then assigning any zip code within 20 miles (or whatever number we like) of that city to that city's answer for retailers and brand names. This will be fairly accurate, but we'll want to say something like "if you have these retailers in your area, you can find the product in these brands" rather than make a more definite statement "you can find these brands at these retailers in your area".

Deliverables

By 5 PM October 26, you need to have turned in the following in the order listed:

  1. A one page double-spaced description of Denali Flavors based on what you understand. The names of your group members should appear on this and the first page of all subsequent attachments.
  2. A three page double-spaced description of the functions your database will perform for Denali Flavors. This description should include a statement about how the functions are currently performed and why the database will be an improvement. I expect this document to be a refinement of the requirements John Naridini has provided. It's a statement in your own words of how you understand the issue at Denali Flavors and what you intend to do about it.
  3. An E-R diagram, with no fewer than 12 entities, that shows the design of your database. This design should be compatible with your description of how the database will be used.
  4. In functional notation, the table structure of your database. Indicated foreign keys using a dotted underline. The tables must be in 3 NF.
  5. A hardcopy of SQL scripts that are used to create your database, fill your database with data, and drop all tables and views from your database. It is critical that the E-R diagram, tables in functional notation, and these SQL scripts tie. That is: What I see in the E-R diagram should be reflected exactly in the functional notation which should in turn be reflected exactly in the SQL scripts. In particular, make sure to include all primary and foreign key constraints.
  6. A hard copy of the SQL that implements five views of your database. Three of the views must use at least three different tables to generate their results.
  7. A zip file submitted through coursetools containing electronic copies of all the SQL hardcopies I requested. The scripts to (1) create the table structure, (2) populate the tables, (3) create the views, and (4) drop the tables and views should each be in a separate file (i.e., you should submit 4 files in the zip file).
  8. In your coursetools submission, also include the user name and password of the Oracle account where the functioning version of your database resides.

Details

You must work in groups of no more than 4 people and no less than 3 people. There are no exceptions.

Your database needs to be for Denali Flavors, and you need to be very careful to define what you have done for them.

Bud edited this on September 20, 2005

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://thecommunityengine.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/fpgibson/thecommunityengine.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1728

Comments

Post a comment




Remember Me?